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ORATION 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 



it? fliiiell iii flitipii if 1,§! 



ONE HUNDRED AND FOURTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE DECLARATION 
OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE, 



JULY 5, 1880 



BY 



ROBERT DICKSOJS^ SMITH, 




§ s t \\ : 

PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE CITY COUNCIL, 

MDCCCLXXX. 



•31 -f 



\f 



\ 




PRESS or 
*ROCKWELL&I 



CITY OF bosto:n^. 



In Board of Aldermen, July 6, 1880. 

Ordered, That the thanks of the City Council be tendered 
to Robert Dickson Smith, Esq., for the very appropriate 
and eloquent Oration upon the life and services of Samuel 
Adams, which was delivered before the municipal authorities 
of this city, July 5, 1880, upon the occasion of the dedication 
of the statue of that Revolutionary Patriot in this city ; and 
that a copy of said oration be requested for publication. 

Passed. Sent down for concurrence. 

HUGH O'BRIEN, 

Chairman. 

In Common Council, July 8, 1880. 
Passed in concurrence. 

HARVEY N. SHEPARD, 

JPreside7it. 

Approved July 12, 1880. 

FREDERICK O. PRINCE, 

Mayor. 

A true copy. 

Attest: S. F. McCLEARY, 

City Clerk. 



Boston, July 14, 1880. 

Gentlemen of the Cit[i Council: — 

In accordance Avith the request contained in your order, 
1 take pleasure in sending you herewith a copy of my address 
delivered upon the 5tli of July, and remain 

Your obliged and obedient servant, 

liOBERT D. SMITH. 



ORATION. 



oJ«4c 



Mr. Mayor, Qentletnen of the CovmcU, and Fellow- 
Citizens : — 
Although the day we celebrate is a national one ; 
although this anniversary commemorates the birth- 
cry of a nation, weak and feeble then, — composed 
of scattered farmers and sailors on " the shores of the 
misty Atlantic ; " a nation, which, — as the genie in 
the Eastern fable, rising before the astonished eyes 
of the fisherman, from the vessel cast upon the 
shore, — in a trice, has spread like a cloud over a 
continent, wider than the whole civilized world beside ; 
yet, as in the town of Boston, more than in any other 
place, and in this, more than in any other colony, 
were sown the seeds and are to be found the causes, 
the habits of thought and principles of action, which 
brought about the great result, — the American Revo- 
lution ; and as Samuel Adams, a native and citizen all 
his life of this town, more than any other man, kin- 
dled and kept in a constant glow the fires of patriot- 
ism, but also, more than any other, may be truly said 
to have represented the principles and anticipated the 



6 OK ATI ON. 

consequences of the American stru<»gle for indepen- 
dence, — it lias been thonglit proper, at this time, to 
call to mind some incidents of his life and times, 
and that the principles of which he was the exponent 
and personification should be the lofty subject of my 
theme. 

I thank you, Mr. Mayor, for your selection of a 
subject when 3^ou invited me to speak to you on this 
occasion. Your indication of your wishes will render 
this selection not invidious; and my treatment will 
not seem j^artial, or particular, by reason of a 
choice from out a galaxy of heroes and statesmen, 
among whom one star only difltereth from another 
star in glory. 

In that Pantheon of departed heroes, the old hall 
of the Xational Capitol at Washington, to which each 
State has been invited by Congress to contribute two 
rejjresentatives of her history, Massachusetts has, 
within a few years, placed two noble statues, — the 
one is of John AVinthrop, as most worthily represent- 
ing our early colonial period; the other of Samuel 
Adams, the personification of the Revolution. It has 
been said that your Legislature hesitated long be- 
tween the latter and his more distinguished kinsman, 
John Adams, the second President of the I'nited 
States. 

But the great goods of fortune which had attended 



JULY 5, .18 80. 7 

the latter, the more national and public rewards which 
had been his during his long life, so many and such 
as seldom or never have fallen to the lot of another, 
doubtless had their weight with the powers which 
determined the selection. The Greek philosopher 
said, " 'No man is to be pronounced happy before his 
death ; " and he mentioned as the most fortunate per- 
son whom he had known one who was the father of 
two virtuous youths, both upon the same day victors 
in the Olympic games. This father, when raised in 
the arms of his sons in the moment of conofratula- 
tion, died from excess of joy. 

So it was with John Adams, who upon the 4th of 
July, the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of 
Independence, while his son was the President of the 
United States, upon the same day with his fellow- 
signer of the Declaration, Thomas Jefferson, expired, 
in the full possession of everything that can make old 
age desirable. 

It has been said, " If the chariot and horses of fire 
had been vouchsafed to him, he could scarcely have 
had a more splendid translation, or departed in a 
brighter blaze of glory." 

But Samuel Adams lived and died poor, and post- 
humous justice has at last come, in some measure, 
to even up the moral equities, by a recognition which 
he would indeed have valued. 



8 () H A T I O N . 

Of the marl)le statue at Washington a l^ronze 
reproduction by the same artist has been presented 
to your city by the munificence of Mr. Jonathan 
Phillips. 

This noble gift is to be placed most fittingly 
in Dock Square, among the streets which Adams 
frequented, near the Green Dragon Tavern, where 
he talked and taught, upon his right hand, old Faneuil 
Hall, the cradle of liberty which he so often rocked, 
and looking straight upon the heights of Charles- 
town. Tt is a ty]iical statue. 

Thy spirit, ludepemlence, let me shave, 

Lord of the lion heai't and eagle eye ! 
Thee let me follow with my bosom bare, 

Nor heed the blast which howls along the sky. 

Born in 1722, and dying at the age of over four- 
score years (in 1803) , the latter half of his life ex- 
tended over the period which most " tried men's souls." 
And yet his story is singularly wanting in romantic 
action or striking incident. With the exception of 
one or two noble scenes, Ms is a history of writings, 
of conferences, of resolutions and State papers. 

The son of a Boston merchant, graduated at Har- 
vard College, when he took his master's degree, in 
1743, he proposed as his thesis the question, 
"AVlu'thcr it Ik' lawful to resist the Supreme Magis- 



JULY5,188 0. 9 

trate, if the Commonwealth camiot otherwise be 
preserved." On this question he maintained the 
aflSrmative. This is the text of the sermon of his 
Hfe, and the motive of his subsequent pohtical career. 

On leaving college he gave some attention to the 
study of divinity, but soon abandoned that profes- 
sion for mercantile pursuits, in which his father was 
engaged. 

It was not until he was forty-four years of age 
that he was sent by his fellow-townsmen to represent 
them in the Great and General Court of the 
Province. 

Up to that time his highest political office had 
been the chairmanship of the town-meetings of the 
toAvn of Boston, at which he usually presided, so that 
the town-house came to be called his throne. 

But during all this period he had interested him- 
self so much in political discussion, in conversation 
with the people in the rope-walk, the ship-yard, and 
the Green Dragon tavern, and in writing in the 
public prints, that he had come to be considered as 
the most stanch and steady friend of the liberties of 
the people, and the most skilful organizer of the 
popular party in the province. 

In those days, Boston, a peninsula, less than half 
of its present size (so much of its territory has 
been stolen from the sea), contained less than 



10 OK A T 1 U N . 

sixteen thousand people, mostly dwelling* in one 
cornel- thereof", — l:)etween Summer street and the 
harbor. 

Tliis handful of people were actively eng-aged in 
trade and the fisheries. For two hundi-ed and fifty 
years since, also on the Fourth of July (1631), within 
the first year aftei* the foundation of your city, the 
first vessel, Governor AVinthrop's bark, "Fortune of 
the Bay," had been launched, and commerce had 
so increased in a short hundred years, that during 
the early manhood of Samuel Adams, more than 
one vessel on the average entered and cleared 
from tliis port each and every day of the year. 

So tliat before the blighting legislation which ' 
preceded the Revolution had crijDpled trade, 
the harbor and wharves of the peninsula were 
filled with the clamor of men, and the creaking of 
cordage, — ^'^ clamor virorum stridorque rudentum,^'' — 
and Boston was the principal and most important 
town of I^orth America. 

At the J^orth End, where were the wharves and 
the ship-yards, there was a certain political organiza- 
tion, made up in part of hardy shij^wrights, and, 
therefore, called the Caulker's Club. 

This Caulker's Club, of which Samuel Adams 
was the leading spirit, has given, probably, to 
the language of English-speaking nations the 



JULY 5, 18 80. 11 

much-abused word ■' caucus ; " though composed of 
a few mechanics and artisans in a remote American 
village, then out of the world one may say, this 
club has exercised a greater influence upon the 
destinies of a nation than all the Jacobin clul3S of 
France. 

For, however important to the cause of American 
liberty was the eloquence of Otis (that flame of 
fire) , the logic of John Adams, or, later, the 
courage of military leaders like Warren, Prescott, 
or Pickering, before the vague aspirations of the 
other colonists had taken form, Samuel Adams, 
backed by this club, was preeminent in embodying, 
uniting, and directing the will of his constituents, 
and in collecting the scattered threads of oppo- 
sition, which would otherwise have been factious, 
and weaving them together into the strong cable 
of constitutional liberty. 

Therefore it is that he has been called l3y Jefferson 
" The Palinurus; " by others, the " Father of the Rev- 
olution." 

He was made, says John Adams, " a wedge of 
steel, to split the knot of lignum-vitae which tied 
North America to England." 

It also happened that in Boston, a few years before 
his birth, was established the first American news- 
paper, the " ^N^ews-letter," and at the time of his birth 



12 O Ti A r ION. 

one other paper, the " Courant," was also piibhshed, in 
the office of which the printer, Benjamin Frankhn, 
was working as an apprentice. 

Young Samuel Adams, first of Americans, recog- 
nized the power of the press as a mighty engine for 
moulding the popular thought, and, gifted with a keen 
and polished pen, " every dip of which," Governor 
Bernard said, " stung him like a horned snake," he 
made the ncAVspapers the daily vehicle of his high 
thoughts and noble aspirations. 

This was before we came to bloAvs; this was 
when people had time to read and to think. 

It was when liberty, religious or political, was not 
a matter of course, and when the danger of oppres- 
sicm was a cloud arising out of the " black water," as 
the Hindoos call the ocean, and coming across the 
seas from the mother country Avith every Eastern 
breeze. 

Long before he was elected a representative of his 
native town, his discussions in the newspaper, over 
various signatures, of public questions announced 
his favorite doctrines, which have now become the 
watchwords of constitutional liberty, — such as that 
government rests upon the equal rights of all men; 
that the welfare and safety of the people are para- 
mount to all other law, and that there exists in them 
a right to change bad constitutions; that mag- 



JULY 5, 18 80. 13 

istrates may be guilty, and often are guilty of treason 
and rebellion; that the union of the several func- 
tions of g-overnnient is dangerous to liberty ; and, as 
to the application of his doctrines to the colony, that 
her representation in Parliament was impossible; 
that Parliament, or the Mug, or both, had no right 
to abrogate the liberties, or legislate for the colonies. 

The first denial of the right of Parliament to tax 
the colonists contained in any official paper; the first 
opposition to the Stamp Act; the first suggestion of a 
union of the colonies, are in the instructions of the 
town of Boston to its representatives, drafted in 
1764 by Samuel Adams. 

All this was before the struggle, and during the 
mutterings of the storm. When the storm came, as 
Webster said of his father, "Through the fire and 
blood of seven years of Revolutionary war, he 
shrank fron no toil, no danger, to serve his country." 

It was said of another civilian of the Revolution, 
Benjamin Franklin, in most happy phrase and with 
a double meaning, "^^Erijyuit ccelo pulmen sceptrum 
que tyranais; but when the thunder-bolt, which 
Adams had forged and placed glowing in the 
hands of liberty, was growing cold and dull during 
the trials of the Revolution, he returned home, 
again and again, to breathe upon it, from the fiery 
furnace of his zeal, and as he moulded and pointed 



14 OK A T 1 < ) N . 

it anew upon tlie iron anvil of bis will \hv spai'l^s 
of patriotism flew upward to the heavens. 

From the age of forty-four to seventy-seven, foi' 
thirty j^ears, as Representative of I^oston in the 
Great and General Court of the Province; and as 
Clerk of that body, as Secretary of the Colony, 
as delegate to the Continental Congi-ess, where he 
signed the Declaration of Independence, and was 
chairman of the Committee on ]S^aval Affairs, and 
represented Massachusetts till 1781, soon after which 
peace was declared; as member of the constitutional 
convention of the Commonwealth, in which he framed 
the Bill of Rights ; as Senator and President of the 
Senate of this State; as Lieutenant-Governor, and 
Governor from the death of Hancock, in 1794, — his 
was a life of constant, untiring, and laborious public 
service. 

Unsuccessful in his private business, in which 
his father's fortune was also lost, — engaged in 
trade at a most disastrous period, — from the time 
of his engaging in the public service he was 
supported by the pittance accorded in those times 
to public servants, and this Avas at times in arrears, 
and paid, during a portion of the time, in a 
terribly depreciated currency. 

Living always in decent poverty, which was 
su])])orted and relieved by the iiidiistrv and 



JULY5,1880. 15 

economy of his wife, when he retired from pnb- 
hc hfe, in 1797, he had no means of sujoport ; 
and when he died, in 1803, it has been said that 
he would have been carried to his last restins:- 
place (in the Old Granary Burying Ground) at 
the chai-ge of his friends, had not the death of 
his only son given him a small support for his 
declining years. 

These last years were clouded by grief and 
mental disease. He left no male descendant to 
bear his name. At home he was a firm opponent 
of all extravagance, dissipation, and sumptuary 
expense, and an advocate and example of the 
sternest republican simplicity in life and morals 
as the surest guaranties of the perpetuation of 
liberty. Indeed, he said he hoped to make Bos- 
ton a "Christian Sparta." He caused the aboli- 
tion of the stocks and of the whipping-posts, 
as being derogatory to the dignity of freemen. 

The cultivation of private and social virtue 
and the education of the children of all citizens 
by free schools may be said to have been his 
hobbies. 

Such was his own frugality that it was not 
till after middle life that he had a single silver 
spoon in his house. Wlien he was a delegate 
to the Continental Congress he was actually pro- 



10 OK AT I ON. 

vidc'd will) a fitting suit of clothes by the kindness 
of certain friends in Boston, and, this being captured 
by the British, he Avas obhged to procure another 
in Pliiladelpliia, at the expense of the Common- 
wealth. Such was his Roman firmness that, though 
he had served during seven years, as it was said, 
with "a halter about his neck," he opposed the 
pardon of those convicted of treason during Shay's 
rebellion, on the ground that one who rebelled 
against a constitutional government, in which he had 
an equal voice, was worthy of the severest pun- 
ishment — death. 

As early as 17G4 he had opposed the slave- 
trade, and when a negro girl was offered as a 
present to his wife, he declined to receive her 
as a slave, saying that " Surry must be free on 
crossing the threshold of his house." She after- 
wards served his family faithfully thirty years. 

Such is a short view of the life of the patriot 
who organized the Revolution, who gave his life 
to the cause fi-om a pure love of liberty and a 
conscientious belief in the natural right of a 
people to resist what is wrong in government and 
oppressive to the many. Life to him was very 
serious. It was a continued struggle with poverty, 
a resistance to power and oppression, a watchful 
l)attlc for freedom and self-government. 



JULY 5, 1880. 17 

The scenes in which he hved are onr early 
history, the steps taken by this province in the 
new and nntried path of hberty ; and famihar 
as they are let me recall to your recollection 
some of those well-known incidents with which 
my subject is connected ; and in so doing-, to 
show briefly how far the notions entertained by 
him have impressed themselves upon subsequent 
times ; how far his sibylline prescience is fairly 
to be considered as a guide. 

The germs or seeds of the American Revolution 
are to be found more immediately in the origin and 
character of the first settlers of this land and colony. 
Whatever may be said of their narrowness and 
bigotry, they were 

Good yeomen, 

Whose limbs were made in England, 

To show us here the mettle of their pasture. 

They were men of logic and courage, willing to 
suffer for opinion's sake, ready to die for that which 
they thought right. 

This same spirit which animated the early colonists, 
the spirit of liberty and resistance to arbitrary power, 
was left, no doubt, in England. 

Indeed, it had a temporary success in the resistance 
to Charles Stewart, culminating in his trial and exe- 
cution; and after the restoration of Charles II. in 



18 " O ]{ A T I O N . 

the more peaceable and permanent revolntion of 1688, 
Avhicli secured tlie rule of the people of England by 
and throngli their connnons. 

The i)arnllel development of the same character- 
istics among kindred ]:)eoples, under difterent cir- 
cumstances, must always be a matter of interest to 
the student of history. 

The times in which a man lives, the people among 
whom he is bred, insensibly to him form his character 
and determine his actions. 

It is a mistake to suppose that any great popular 
movement depends upon the will or genius of a single 
person; much as one man may guide and direct the 
movements of a people, he is still a child of 
destiny. 

So Samuel Adams, the last of the Puritans, as he 
has been called, I think falsely, was the legitimate 
result of the people, the coimtry, and the times, and 
of the century of colonial life preceding his birth. 
Men of his chai-acter, though less in degree and force, 
though not combining his many qualities of head and 
heart, fitting him to lead men, there were many among 
the Puritan fathers. Each ship brought some of them 
to the l)leak or rugged sliores of either cape which 
guards our bay. 

Indeed, it has been said that Cromwell liimself was 
stopped at Bristol on his way to America. 



JULY 5, 18 80. 19 

The descendants of these Puritans, Magnariimi 
Remi Nepotes, have peopled a great belt of the con- 
tinent with men of ruling* minds. Whenever a man 
rises to eminence in the northern range of States, it is 
found that the bones of his ancestors are resting in 
the old graveyards of the Commonwealth, which 
should be the Mecca of the now imperial West. The 
ancestors of Generals Grant and Sherman lie with 
the ancestors of Adams and Franklin. The ancestors 
of these men may claim to belong to a commanding 
race ; when in power, indeed, capable of tyranny, but 
as subjects, no people more capable of free thought 
and action or of stubborn resistance to oppression. 

To these emigrants to the province, enterprising 
and conscientious, Puritans, Independents, Sectaries, 
disposed to question for themselves and without 
much reverence for authority, the kings of the 
Stewart line did not scruple to grant territories in 
North America, extending from the Atlantic to the 
" Western Seas," to which these kings had only the 
right of discovery. 

Connected with the general passion for colonization, 
which had taken jDossession of all European nations, 
there was in the minds of English sovereigns a feeling 
that active, uneasy, and factious subjects might well 
spend their energies in subduing the wilderness of the 
IS'ew World. 



20 O R A T I O X . 

So little was the well-being of the colonists an 
object of fostering care, that all sorts of criminals 
were transported to some of the more flourishing 
plantations and sold to the planters for temporary 
periods of servitude, and all the Colonial Acts of 
Massachusetts abolishing the slave-trade w^ere vetoed 
by the king or royal governors. 

The magnitude of the colonial system was neither 
anticipated nor understood at the time of granting 
the early charters, and the Colonial Charter of 
Massachusetts Bay, as well as the Province Charter, 
contained certain very important provisions, upon 
which the conservative, as well as the independent, 
subject could found a claim to the right of self- 
government. 

The material provisions of these charters granted 
the colonists power — I quote from the first charter — 
" to make laws and ordinances for the good and w^el- 
fare of said company, and for the government of said 
lands and plantations, and the people inhabiting and 
to inhabit the same, as to them, from time to time, 
shall be thought meet — so as such laws and ordi- 
nances be not contrar}^ to the state of this own realm 
of England." [Col. Ch. 1628, p. 9.] 

" That they shall live under our allegiance." Ih. 

11. 

"That all our subjects who sliall go to and inliabit 



J U L Y 5 , 1 8 8 . 21 

(said plantations, etc.) shall have and enjoy all 
liberties and immunities of free and natural-born sub- 
jects, within any of the dominions of us, our heirs 
and successors, as if they were born in England." Ih. 

Upon these clauses hang all the law and the proph- 
ets, so far as the legal or constitutional aspect of 
the controversy went between the sovereign and the 
colonists of Massachusetts Bay. 

These colonists were left much to themselves for a 
hundred years, during the troubles of Charles with 
the parliaments, and during the severe rule of Crom- 
well, with whom they were disposed to sympathize ; 
for it is true, I believe, that as late as 1660, the 
Kegicides, Goffe and Whalley, were publicly received 
and entertained in Boston. It was not till fourteen 
months after the restoration of Charles II. that he 
was proclaimed king, in Boston. And it was actually 
thirty days before the news of the Revolution of 1688 
reached Boston, that the people of the town had risen 
and driven out the royal governor. 

The colonists had grown strong in liberty and in 
self-reliance, and when they were thought ripe for 
taxation they were found also ready to maintain their 
rights under their charters, and to contend that it was 
the birthright of Englishmen to be taxed only by their 
own consent; and as by their situation and circum- 
stances the colonists were not and could not be repre- 



22 " O H A T I < ) X . 

sentcd in PaiTunnent, they could not be taxed by tluit 
body, but onl}^ by their own representatives in the 
General Court, whose laws Avere subject only to the 
A^eto of the sovereign, to Avhom alone they owed 
alle^Mance. 

This position, in conflict Avith the supreme power of 
Parliament, Avhich claimed the right to impose taxes, 
gaA^e great umbrage to the partisans of the ministry. 

^ay, some of the bolder and freer of the colonists 
were ready to go further, and to rest their demands 
upon the natural right of men; and even to take the 
ground that governments rested upon the consent of 
the governed, and were really intended for the benefit 
of the Avhole people, — a doctrine Avhich has since 
obtained some currency, but then Avas not at all 
palatable to those Avho governed, and especially to 
those Avho maintained the divine rights of kings. 

Among the lattei' class Avas Samuel Adams, Avho 
Avas a friend, as Avell as a leader, of the people, 
and by nature extremely jealous and Avatchful of 
assumed or centralized powxr. 

Tramed in the school of habitual 0{)position, 
and ahvays resting upon his arms before the 
Avatch-fire of liberty, the fibre of his mind Avas of 
that toughness, and his nature so undaunted and 
incorruptible, that no Avant of success for a 
moment damped his courage. 



JULY5,1880. 23 

He early saw the end that must come, — that 
the colonists must fight at last for their liberties. 

To that test he was willing to submit the cause, 
and his prescience foretold the result. 

As soon as he was embarked in the legislative 
life, and his character was known in England, 
and became a source of annoyance to the ministry, 
and it was also known that he was very poor, 
it was proj^osed, as usual in those days and with 
the ministry of George III., when the clamorous 
grew troublesome, to silence him with some office 
in the gift of government. 

Gov. Hutchinson, whom he was op^^osing, in 
answer to some friend who asked why he was 
not so silenced, replied, " Such is the obstinacy 
and inflexible disposition of the man that he never 
can be conciliated by any office or gift whatever." 

Some years later, when he had been warned 
on the night of the 18th of April, 1775, the eve 
of Lexington and Concord, and on the morning 
of the 19th was escaping from Lexington at 
dawn, through the fields, in company with a friend, 
'he said, " This is a glorious day." 

His friend, supposing he alluded to the weather, 
said, " It is very pleasant, indeed." 

" I mean," said Adams, " this is a glorious day 
for America." 



24 ORATION. 

The story is too long* to tell of acts of Samuel 
Adams which go to make up the history of the 
Revolution, but it seems to me that I may be 
pardoned if I recall to you at this time the oft- 
told tale of the Boston Massacre, and of the 
events immediately preceding, and particularly 
because that 5th of March, 1770, was for twelve 
years celebrated by our city as its anniversary 
of independence, and such men as Joseph Warren, 
John Hancock, and John Lowell, were the orators 
of that anniversary. It was not until 1783 that 
the celebration was merged in that of the 4th of 
July, of which it was the precursor. In 1783 
Samuel Adams was one of the committee to select 
the orator for the first celebration of this day. 

One year, then, after the reign of George III. 
began, a conspiracy was set on foot to try the ques- 
tion of strength with the colonies; which question the 
king declared he would never relinquish but with his 
crown and life ; and Boston was selected by an obsti- 
nate monarch as the field for the grand debate. 

This we now know from the lips of his own 
accomplices, his ministers. 

In 1761 application was made to the courts 
of the i)rovince in aid of the collectors of custom 
for the celebrated writs of assistance. The elo- 
quence of Otis in opposition to the application. 



JULY 5, 18 80. 25 

and the excitement manifested by the colonists at 
this invasion of their Hberties, caused the court 
presided over by Hutchinson, after several adjourn- 
ments, to shrink from the responsibility of grant- 
ing such writs, and to refrain from giving judgment. 
Grenville then devised the Stamp Act, and the 
appointment of Oliver as a distributor of stamps 
again aroused the watchfulness of the colonists. 

The stamp-office near the custom-house was 
demolished by a mob, and Oliver's house at- 
tacked and damaged. Such violence was ex- 
tremely distasteful to Samuel Adams, who declared 
when the mob afterwards attacked Hutchinson's 
house, that he " would have rather lost his right 
hand." 

Then it was determined to overawe Boston by a 
standing army, and the Fourteenth and Twenty-ninth 
Regiments of the king's troops were quartered in 
the town. The forces of the king had before always 
been quartered at the Castle William, as Governor's 
Island or Fort Independence was called ; and, as may 
be imagined, the adverse occupation of the town by 
regulars was productive of vexations endless and 
frequent collisions. 

In these conflicts the "town-born turned out," as 
the phrase was, and generally had the advantage. 
The soldiers burned for vengeance ; and before the 



26 ORATION. 

5th of March, 1770, when Lord ISTorth, in liis ])]aee 
in Parliament, was speaking of the colonies, and of 
the determination of the king to subdue them by 
force, and predicting his success, and declaring that 
America should lie prostrate at his feet, — before that 
very evening it was whispered by the soldiers that 
there would be blood. Upon the evening of the 5th 
of March, the moon was shining upon the newly fallen 
snow in the streets of Boston, in which many persons 
Avere moving to and fro, when several boys and citizens, 
perhaps not of the better sort, assailed with words a 
sentinel before the custom-house in King, now State, 
street. He finally called to his aid the guard, six in 
number, with whom came Capt. Preston, the ofiicer 
of the day, and finally when from words came blows, 
and sticks, and stones, such was the irritation of the 
soldiers that they, either with or Avitliout command of 
their ofiicer, discharged their pieces upon the crowd; 
each musket was loaded with two balls. To show 
the malice of their aim, it is said each bullet is ac- 
counted for, and is shown to have infiicted a wound 
upon some of the bystanders; three citizens were 
mortally injured and eight wounded, no one of whom 
had taken any part in the actual assault. The ])ells 
of the churches were rung; every man in the town 
turned out. " The drums beat at dead of night." 
I^he king's troops were under arms; 1'hey were 



JULY 5, 18 80. 27 

drawn up in the narrow part of State street, adjoin- 
ing' the Old State House, and stood there confront- 
ing the angry populace, swaying to and fro in the 
unUghted streets. 

Gaunt murder stalked among the people. 

At last the soldiers were ordered, at the request of 
the Governor from the balcony, to retire to their bar- 
racks, and, upon Hutchinson's promise that the law 
should take its course, the peoj^le wei'e induced to re- 
tire to their homes, to meet upon the morrow in the 
town-house. 

The meeting was adjourned, on account of numbers, 
to the Old South Church. John Adams says that ten 
thousand to twelve thousand persons were estimated to 
be collected in the venerable building. This is probably 
an exaggeration, when we consider that the town 
could not have contained more than a quarter of that 
number of male citizens. Jonathan Williams Avas 
chosen moderator. A remonstrance to the Governor 
was ordained, and a demand that the regular troops 
be i-emoved from the town. Always willing that 
others should have offices of emoluments and honor, 
Sam Adams, when danger threatened, was at the 
front. He was appointed chairman of the committee 
to present this remonstrance, and to announce that 
the citizens could no longei* tolerate the presence of 
troops within the town. This resolution he, at the 



28 OK ATI ON. 

head of bis committee, bore tbe next day to Gover- 
nor Ilnteliinson. 

It was not in Adams' nature to fear any man, much 
less liis adversary, Hutchinson, who had spoken of 
him as the " Chief Incendiary." 

He was fully roused, though very calm; breathing 
tlie spirit of the Koman Cassius, — 

but for my single self, 

I h;i(l as lief not be as live to be 

In awe of such a tliinj^ as I myself — 

he appeared before the Council. 

This picture lias been described l)y a master 
hand. It is the dramatic scene of Samuel Adams' 
life. 

In the Council Chamber, in the old State 
House, then adorned by two noble portraits of 
Kings Charles II. and James H., in splendid 
golden frames, — the gift of Governor Bernard, 
pictures of which no painter in England at that 
day was capable, — sat Lieutenant-Governor Hutch- 
inson, with eight and twenty councillors, clothed 
in scarlet robes, snowy wigs, and gold-laced 
hats. 

The Governor was supported by Lieutenant-CoU)nel 
Dalrymple, taking precedence of all the Councillors 
as Commander-in-Chief of His Majesty's forces, 



JULY 5, 1880. 29 

and seated by the right hand of the Chief 
Magistrate. 

Before them appeared Samuel Adams, dressed 
probably also in a cloak of red broadcloth, as 
he is painted in Faneuil Hall, a cocked hat, and a 
tie wig, and without a sword; and for himself a man 
of middle size, with a clear blue eye, and of mild iDut 
grave expression, like one who was most earnest, and 
almost stern, but with whom little children loved to 
talk. His voice was sweet and melodious, trained 
in the practice of singing sacred music, — his only 
recreation; and with moderate tones, though the 
snow beneath the windows was stained with the blood 
of his fellow-towns-people, he spoke of the state 
of the town and of the country, the dangerous, 
ruinous, and fatal effects of standing armies in 
populous cities in times of peace, and of the deter- 
mination of his fellow-citizens that the troops 
must be removed. His hand and head, then 
slightly palsied, " a tremor never communicated to 
his soul," gave additional emphasis to his weighty 
words. Hutchinson, at the head of his hesitating 
council, at first replied, " that he had no authority 
over the king's troops; that they had their 
separate commander, separate orders and instruc- 
tions, and that he had no right to interfere." 
This was a pretence; but Hutchinson had before 



oO • OKATION. 

him a master of debate, with whom no ialhiey in 
argument, oi* misquotation of authority, eouhl 
eseape. Adams at once appealed to tlie cliarter 
of tlu' ])rovince, which he said made the Gov- 
ernor, and in his absence the Lieutenant-Governor, 
commander of all the forces within its borders. 
There were at that time immense and excited 
assemblies of the people, from day to day, Avhom 
nothing but the influence and most solemn 
promises of Adams and others, that the soldiers 
should be withdrawn, could restrain; and the whole 
militia of the city, in sympathy with the people, 
was in requisition to keep the peace betw^een the 
citizens and the soldiery. In this delicate crisis 
Samuel Adams was reasoning calmly wath the 
Governor and Commander and Council n])()n 
chartered rights, and dangers of standing armies. 
The king's people wxi'e driven by his arguments 
from their jiositions. The Governor and the 
Council were cowed before him. AYlien the 
whispering of consultation had ceased Hutchinson 
broke silence, and said he had consulted with 
Colonel Dalrymple, and had been authorized to 
say that he might order one regiment down to 
the castle, if that would satisfy the people. 
" With a self-recollection, a self-command, a self- 
possession, and a presence of mind, that were 



JULY r>, 1880. 31 

admired by every man present,"" says John Adams, 
Samuel Adams arose, with an air of dignity and 
majesty stretched forth his arm, with harmonious 
voice and decisive tone said: "If the Lieutenant- 
Governor, or Colonel Dalrymple, or l3oth together, 
have the power to remove one regiment, they have 
the power to remove two. N^othing short of the 
total evacuation of this town by all the regular 
troops will satisfy the public mind, or preserve 
the peace of this province. If you refuse, it is 
at your peril. ]N^ight is approaching; an imme- 
diate answer is expected. Both regiments or none ! " 
These few simple words thrilled through the heart 
of every freeman present. It is difficult now to 
read them without emotion. They closed that 
debate for liberty. " It was then," said Adams 
afterwards of Hutchinson, "if fancy deceived me 
not, that I observed his knees to tremble. I 
thought I saw his face grow pale, and I enjoyed 
the sight." Samuel Adams stood with folded 
arms. It is this moment which the artist has 
seized for the posture of the noble statue, the 
gift of Mr. Phillips to your city. It is not 

The stone which breathes and struggles, 
The brass which seems to speak ; 

but the moment of that pause, so awful to the 



82 Okation. 

minister of a tyrant, clamoring ])y its silence for 
a rei)ly, and knowing- that only one answer can be 
retnrned. Qtium tacet clamat ! 

After an awkward i)an8e it was agreed that both 
regiments should be withdrawn. On their way to 
the castle, through the crowded streets they were 
marched to the wharf, attended by the patriot Moli- 
neux, to protect them from the indignation of the 
fellow-citizens of the townsmen who were lying dead. 
Lord j^orth, with his characteristic humor, always af- 
terwards called these troops " Sam Adams' regiments." 

I need not tell you how at the trial of Capt. Pres- 
ton and his soldiers for murder, which followed, John 
Adams and Josiah Quincy, leading patriots, by Sam- 
uel Adams' influence, were employed for their defence, 
that nothing might be needed for a fair trial ; how, by 
their skilful efforts and an upright jury, six of the 
prisoners were wholly acquitted for want of proof, 
and the other two escaped death by pleading benefit 
of clergy. I need not mention to you how again he 
confronted danger, when at the head of a committee 
of the Legislature he ])()re the articles of impeachment 
against Oliver to the Council; how he and John 
Hancock were alone excepted from Gen. Gage's 
proclamation of i)ai-d()n in 1775, " their offences being 
of too flagitious a nature to admit of any other con- 
sideration than that of condign punishment;" how. 



JULY 5, 18 80. 33 

when the ancient government of Massachusetts was 
abrogated by Great Britain by the repeal of our pro- 
vincial charter, the formation of the voluntary govern- 
ment was in j)^i't the work of Samuel Adams, which 
Burke says is " among the marvels of history ; " how, 
by his elforts with others during the war, Massachu- 
setts alone gave to the cause one-third of all the men 
and means furnished by the thirteen colonies, in 
recognition of which one of the two cannon in the 
State-house, presented by Congress to this Common- 
wealth, — all that remained of the four field-pieces 
constituting the entire Federal artillery at the begin- 
ning of the war, — is named " The Adams, ^"^ the other 
being " The Hancock ; " and how, finally, he insisted 
upon no peace without independence, and finally, 
when the treaty of peace was negotiating, the power 
of Adams was exerted in its accustomed manner to 
save and protect the fisheries, " that nursery of sea- 
men," as he called them; and how, without the fullest 
guaranty for their safety, his voice and that of Massa- 
chusetts was still for war. 

But at last the holy cause triumphed, and a treaty 
of peace was made with Great Britain, in which the 
independence of the thirteen colonies is acknowledged, 
and they are designated in the treaty " The United 
States of America." 

During all the long struggle there had been no 



34 ORATION. 

destruction of civil government, no resolution of 
society into its elements, no committee of safety, no 
reign of terror, no rule of directory or the commune, 
no cessation of the steady rule of law and order. 
As Lord Dunmore said of Yirginia, " The voluntary 
government had been obeyed infinitely better than the 
ancient in its most fortunate periods." 

Before peace was actually declared it became 
proper for the people of this Commonwealth to frame 
a new constitution for their better government more 
in accordance with the principles Avhich had been so 
fully vindicated, 

A constitutional convention was convened in 
1779, and we are now living under the substan- 
tial principles of organic law by it established. 
In this convention it is probable no one member 
had so much influence as Samuel Adams. To 
his hand and brain we owe its more important 
provisions. We have seen him as a constitutional 
revolutionist, of a different, type from other revo- 
lutionists. We now see him as a constructor, as 
one of the devisors of the charter wdiich is to 
protect us from ourselves and to enal)le us to 
transmit our lil)ert3^ untarnished to our children. 

And I may say, in this place, that so imbued 
was Samuel Adams with the duty of pi'otecting 
the rights of minorities, and the free expression 



JULY 5, 18 80. 35 

of dissent, that when he was presiding- and there 
was one dissentient voice from the unanimous 
sentiment of the town-meeting-, and that voice was 
drowned by tlie tumultuous applause and clamoi-, he 
arrested proceedings until this dissent was recorded 
in due form. Adams returned from Philadelphia to 
attend to this new frame of government, and as the 
old State-house, with winding stair and antique 
gable, had become too small to accommodate the 
growing needs of the people, and as Samuel Adams 
afterwards laid the corner-stone of the present capitol 
of this Commonwealth, whereon arose, to crown the 
lofty heights of your city, the fair and symmetrical 
edifice which lifts its shining dome to the blue 
heavens and looks across the narrow sea on our 
Marathon at Bunker's Hill, a beacon to the sea- 
tossed mariner who is wafted to our shores, com- 
manding within its horizon the busy marts and happy 
homes of half a million prosperous people, — so, in 
this constitutional convention, he drafted the Bill of 
Rights, that corner-stone on which rest the very 
fabric of our State, and the preservation of our 
liberties for all time. 

Senator Hoar, in his remarks upon the presen- 
tation of the memorial statues at Washington, — 
to whom I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness, 
— said, " Samuel Adams was, I think, the greatest 



36 ORATION. 

of our American statesmen; <^reatcst, if we judge 
him by the soundness and sureness of his opinions 
on tlic great questions of his time and of all 
time; greatest in the strength of original argu- 
ment by which he persuaded the people to its good." 

Most of his convictions have come to be house- 
hold words of free governments, and received by 
all parties as political axioms. 

Let us consider, then, what is the lesson of this 
story? What great and still present danger to 
our State did Samuel Adams foresee, and guard 
against? It was the unnecessary centralization, 
or long continuance of power in the hands of 
any ruler. Eternal vigilance had been the price 
of liberty; and his theory was to permit, nay, 
compel, men to govern themselves as immediately 
as possible, and especially in their domestic con- 
cerns. He absolutely trusted the people in the 
government of their own aifairs when allowed 
to consider the reasons addressed to them. He 
believed in the education of the masses in the 
art of self-government. He had been brought up 
in the town-meeting, — our miniature of a true 
and pure democracy. He saw and knew how 
well the town affairs are administered by men not 
of eminent abilities, but of sound common-sense, 
clothed only with such powers as are absolutely 



JULY 5, 18 80. 37 

necessary to perform the tasks of government 
entrusted to their care, and acting constantly 
nnder the eyes of their constituents, and constantly 
responsible to them by frequent elections. 

Indeed, it was wittily said of him by one of 
his friends, that if America could be governed 
by Massachusetts, Massachusetts by Boston, and 
Boston by a town-meeting in which he presided, 
he would be satisfied, and it would not be in- 
tentionally ill-governed either. 

And so of the government of the Common- 
wealth, his belief was that the people could be 
absolutely trusted, and while elections should be 
annual, no great abuse could long exist, provided 
the people of the State were intelhgent, vh'tuous, 
honest, and watchful of the doings of their legis- 
lators. And of course the permanent well-being 
of every free State must in the long run rest 
upon those qualities in the body of her citizens. 

Is not this in accordance with the dictates of 
reason, that power should be delegated only to 
the extent which the object to be effected de- 
mands? Is not the only basis of a republic the 
general intelligence and honesty of the people? 

As Samuel Adams had an important part in 
drafting the Articles of Confederation which the 
instructions in 1761: of the town of Boston to its 



38 ' > TR -^ T I O N . 

Kepresentatives had recommended, so he was always 
sensible of the absolute necessity of giving to 
Congress the exclusive management of foreign, 
financial, and niilitar}'^ affairs. 

80 it was that, when the constitution of the 
United States was offered for the acceptance of 
the sovereign State of Massachusetts, Samuel 
Adams, after much scrutiny, favored its accept- 
ance, with the addition of amendments which were 
adopted, which were his work, and which, when 
mentioned, will at once be seen to be the very 
bulwarks of constitutional liberty. 

The chief provisions are absolute freedom for 
religion; the right of the citizens to keep and bear 
arms ; compensation for private property taken 
for public uses ; trial by jury according to com- 
mon law; and, most important of all, that powers 
not delegated to the United States, nor pro- 
hibited by the Constitution to the States, are 
reserved to the States respectively or to the 
people. 

He also advanced the doctrine that the Federal 
Government should never interfere in the quarrels 
of other nations, and that the debates of Con- 
gress should be open, and not secret. 

His belief was that the people of each State should 
govern themselves through their State governments, 



JULY 5, 18 80. 39 

to as great an extent as possible. His fear was of 
the encroachments of the General Government. 

How perfectly the purposes of government are 
reached by our State constitutions, with what 
stability they have survived internal discord and 
foreign invasion, I think you all know. We per- 
haps can judge of the success of the experiment 
best by jjersonal experience, which is likely to 
expose any and all defects. 

Let us look at Massachusetts to-day, — and it 
seems to me that the experiment here has been 
going on since the time of Governor Winthrop, 
and does not date merely from the Revolution, — 
I venture to say that never in the whole history 
of the world, from the building of Babel to the 
present time, have there been seen a million 
and a half of peoi3le living together in such 
material prosperity, — so well fed, so well clothed, 
so well housed. May we not add, so surrounded 
by the means of education for themselves and 
their children; with such opportunities for the 
free exercise of their religion; with such security 
to life, liberty, to property, and the pursuit of 
happiness. And as to the administration of the 
law, has there been a just complaint for years, 
that in this Commonwealth all men and their rights 
in property are not equal before the courts? 



40 OIJATTON. 

Notwithstanding the bni'dens of taxation, and the 
tentative character of our legislation, I think it is a 
subject of congratulation tlint there is absolutely 
no class legislation, no legislation avowedly or 
really intended to diminish the liberty or take away 
the rights of any man. All men who have served 
in the Legislature know that party is almost un- 
heard of in its deliberations ; that as a body it is 
honest-minded, absolutely free from bribery, and 
that it is amenable to reason and common-sense. 

The frequent election of its members prevents the 
office from being much sought for, as one of power 
or ambition. This also prevents its action ever being 
directed to improper restraint upon liberty or the 
pursuit of happiness. If a man does not vote 
properly, and his constituents can no longer trust his 
common-sense, he is easily removed. 

This is not so with our federal government. There 
is another state of things almost from the nature of 
the case. It is more distant; it is more complex. Its 
action rests upon the concurrent consent of States, and 
the citizens of States, widely differing in climate, in 
laws, in manners, in habits, and modes of thought. 

It cannot be readily reached ; its mistakes cannot 
be readily remedied. 

The presidential chair has been the object of the 
hiofhest ambition of the most worthv and of the 



JULY 5, IS SO. 41 

most wicked men, — of a AYashington and of a 
Burr. 

The first term of ofiiee is often spent in canvass- 
ing for renomination ; the second, in naming a suc- 
cessor ; and these labors are so shared by the poUtical 
aspirants in the Senate and House as materially to 
interfere with the business of the country. 

And, although the few great beneficial and neces- 
sary powers confided by the Constitution to the 
General Government cannot be administered by the 
States, and must be delegated to the United States, — 
such as our relations with the foreign powers, and 
the relations of the sovereign States between 
themselves, the less that government is allowed to 
meddle with the domestic affairs of the States, with 
transportation by carriers, the selection of juries, 
the 2>ublic schools, state tribunals, elections in which 
State ofiicers are chosen, the better for us. The 
distinguished Senator from Massachusetts, the author 
of the question of his lecture, "Are we a nation?" 
said of Alabama, "If they will not have free schools 
we will compel them." It must be remembered that 
if the citizens of other States in Congress may 
impose schools upon Alabama, they may abolish them 
in Massachusetts. 

The central government is not so competent to 
do the work which we need to have done. It is 



42 ORATION. 

more likely to be the prey to abuse and coiTuption; 
and those who are dazzled by tlie image of imperial 
])()Aver, who listen to the cries of sciolists for a 
strong" central government, or the advice of doc- 
trinaires who desire unification and a standing army, 
— for what purpose they do not tell ns, — may be con- 
tented with the forms of election which placed upon a 
throne, of what Avas once a Republic, a line of Roman 
Emperors, a Xero or a Heliogabalus : with a ple- 
biscite, by which the old departments of France, 
swallowed up in the centralizing vortex of Paris, 
were content to sanction a coup d?eiat of a prince 
President, or record the wishes of a most corrupt 
despotism. 

We can com})are, if we please, in mere military 
efficiency, the rising of the States long used to peace 
to put down the great rebellion by their militia, with 
the official corruption in every department of a 
strong government which had sa])ped the life of 
France, and led to the overwhelming misfortune at 
Sedan. 

Even in the case of a free, representative, but cen- 
tralized government, is it not natural that Ireland 
should cry for home rule, where mere absenteeism 
and a mistake in the law regulating the descent of 
real property, and the general evils of foreign conti-ol 
have led to such results? 



JULY n, IS so. 43 

But it will be long, I hope, before the people of 
Massachusetts will be persuaded to yield a present 
certain good for an uncertain and doubtful advantage;, 
all the less that the central government has, in those 
things given it to do by the Constitution, had its ca- 
pacity tried by foi'eign war and internal discord. It 
has sailed securely through the most threatening 
dangers ; it has conducted great maritime wars, and 
overrun great territories. It has subdued a great 
i-ebellion: within its sphere it needs nothing added 
to its strength. 

Let us, then, remember that we are safe while all 
powers not delegated to the United States are pre- 
served intact in the custody and keeping of the peo- 
ple of the several States. 

In the words of Henry Cla^^, '' Our Government is 
not to be strengthened or our Union preserved by in- 
vasions of the rights and powers of the several States. 
In thus attempting to make our Government strong 
we make it w^eak. Its true strength consists in leav- 
ing individuals and States as much as possible to 
themselves ; in making itself felt, not by its power, 
but by its beneficence; not by its control, but in its 
protection; not in binding the States more closely to 
the centre, but leaving each to move unobstructed in 
its particular orbit." 

Upon our pi'eserving the wise scheme devised by 



44 O K A T 1 () N . 

our ratliers, depends the perpetuity of liberty for our 
children. 

" I have an ambition," said Lord Chatham. " It is 
the ambition of delivering to my posterity those rights 
of freedom which T have inherited from my ancestors." 

T do not know that I can more approj^riately con- 
clude this address than by quoting the w^ords of 
Samuel Adams, at his inauguration as Lieutenant- 
Governor, when about to take the customary oath to 
support and maintain the Constitution. 

'' 1 shall presently," he said, " be called upon by 
you, sir, as it is enjoined by the Constitution, to make 
a declaration upon oath, and shall do it with cheerful- 
ness, because the injunction accords with my oAvn 
judgment and conscience, that the Commonwealth of 
Massachusetts is and of right ought to he a free, 
sovereign, and independent State. I shall also be 
called upon to make another declaration witli the 
same solemnity to support the Constitution of the 
United States. 

" I see the consistency of this, for it cannot have 
been intended but that these constitutions should 
mutually aid and support each other. 

" It is also my humble opinion that while the Com- 
monwealth maintains her oavu just authority, weight, 
and dignity, slio will be among the firmest pillars of 
tlie Federal I iiioii. 



JULY 5, 18 80. 45 

" May the Constitution of the Federal Government 
and those of the several States in the Union be 
guided by the unerring finger of Heaven. 

" Each of them, and all of them united, will then, 
if the people are wise, be as prosperous as the 
msdom of human institutions and the circumstances 
of human society will admit." 



APPENDIX. 



THE STATUE 



SAMUEL ADAMS. 



oV»^c 



At the mooting of tlie Board of Aldermen hold on the 
23d of June, 1879, Alderman Stebbins offered the following 
order : — 

Ordered, That the chairman and tAvo members of this Board 
consider the expediency of erecting statues of Samuel Adams 
and John Winthrop in this city, tlic former to be located in the 
square at the foot of Brattle street, and the latter on Montgom- 
ery square or some other suitable location. 

Aldermen Stebbins and Kelly made a few remai'ks in sup- 
port of this order, and it was passed unanimously. Aldermen 
Stebbins and Brock were appointed on the committee. 

On the 20th October the committee reported as follows : — 

The special committee appointed to consider tiie expedienc}' of erect- 
ing statues of Samuel Adams and John Wintliroj) in this city beg leave 
to submit the following report : — 

It was the feeling of the committee, in performing the dut}- assigned 
them, that the city would probably obtain the most satisfiictory statues 
by procuring, if possible, duplicates of those of Adams and Winthro]) 



r)0 .vrrEXDix. 

ODiitriliuteil by the State of Massacluisetts to the national gallery at 
Washington, and niaile by Miss Anne Whitney and Richard S. Green- 
ough, resi^ectively. The casts of these statues are preserved, and the 
labor and expense of furnishing duplicate statues would be much less 
than in designing and executing new ones. 

With this idea in mind the committee obtained authority, as will be 
remembered, to contract with Mr. Greenough for furnishing a duplicate 
of his AVinthrop statue, and they wei'e disposed to contract with Miss 
AVhitney also, in like manner, for a duplicate of her statue of Adams; 
but. upon further consideration, decided in the latter case to invite 
competition from one or two other resident artists. 

^lodels for the proposed Adams statue were accordingly received 
from Thomas R. Gould and Martin ^lilmore, of Boston, and also frt)m 
Alexander Doyle, of Ilallowell, Me., Avho, although not invited to sub- 
mit a model, was allowed to do so hy the committee. 

The studies submitted were in competition with Miss Whitney's com- 
pleted statue. They were placed on exhibition in City Hall, and 
several gentlemen versed in art matters were invited to inspect them 
and give an opinion as to their relative merits. 

The committee have no hesitation in saying that the weight of oi^inion 
was decidedly in favor of ^liss Whitney's work; and, considering all 
the circumstances, they have felt fully warranted in giving her tlie 
commission. 

It is specially gratifying to find that the ccniimittee were entirely 
imited in this matter, and also that their views coincided with those of 
His Honor the Mayor, and, so far as known, of the gentlemen who were 
invited to pass judgment upon the studies submitted by the different 
artists. 

The committee would respectfully recommend the i)assage of the 
accompanving order. 

iir(;ii (vmuKN, 

S. r.. STEIUUXS. 
CH.VULES II. r,. r.ItECK. 

('iiinmillt't. 



STATUE OF SAMUEL ADAMS. 51 

Ordered, That His Honor the Ma^-or, with three members of this 
Board, be a special committee authorized to contract -with Anne "Wliit- 
ney for the delivery to this city of a bronze statue of Samuel Adams, 
at a cost not exceeding $4,800; said sum to be paid from the income of 
the Phillips Street Fund. 

The order was passed, and Aldermen O'Brien, Stebbins, and Breck 
were appointed on the committee. 

In accordance with this order a contract was made with Miss 
Whitney to furnish the statue in season to be placed in position 
on the 4th July, 1880. 

By an order passed Xoveniber 3, the conuuittee were re- 
quested to locate the statue in the open space at the junction of 
Brattle street, Cornhill, Washington street, and Devonshire 
street. 

On the 17th Xoveniber the following was submitted : — 

The Special Committee of the Board of Aldermen charged with the 
erection of the statue of Samuel Adams, who were requested by an 
order of this Board to locate said statue in the si^ace formed by the 
junction of Brattle street, Cornhill, Washington street, and Devonshire 
street, having considered the subject, would respectfully i-ecommend 
the passage of the accomiDanying order : — 

Ordered, That the Committee on the Adams Statue, in consultation 
with the Committee on Paving, be and they are hereby authorized to 
select a suitable site for said Adams statue in the open space formed by 
the junction of Brattle street, Cornhill, Washington street, and Devon- 
shire street. 

Ordered, That the open space formed by the junction of Brattle 
street, Cornhill, Washington street, and Devonshire street be hereafter 
called and known as Adams square. 

Passed. 



.)2 A r TEX nix. 

fl:iiiii;irv \'2. ISSO, nil onliT Avas ;ul()])tO(l n])]iointing; His 
Honor the MaNorand Altlri'iiicn ( )"r>ii(ii. rn'cck. and Wliitti'n 
a sj)Ocial coniniittoo on tlu' 8ul)ji'ct. An onKr. [)as>i'(l Ajiiil 
11', anthori/i'd this ronmiittcc to contract tor a snitaMc pedes- 
tal, and a contract was made with the HaUowcll (ii-anitt- Com- 
pany to tiirnish a pedestal made aceortliny: to a design drawu 
hv ^fr. (leoriic A. Chmuh, City Architect, and to erect the 
same, for thi- snni ot" S1,S()(). 

The height ot' the pedestal is ten feet and one inch. The 
die is three feet square, constructed of C^nincy granite. The 
pedestal and jdinth to the sanu' are higldy polished. The i)ase, 
or sul)structnre, including the fenders to a height of about two 
feet and four inches above the grade, is unpolished. 

A broad curb is provided six feet from the base line of the 
pedestal to level the grade, and to give protection to persons 
viewing the monument. 

The following inscriptions, prepared by His Honor ]Mayor 
Prince, are cut on the four faces of the die, in V-sunk 
letters, ijilded : — 



S T AT U E OF S A M U E L A D A .AI S . 53 

SAMUEL ADAMS 

17 22-1803 
A PATR I OT 

HE ORGAXIZED THE REVOLUTIOX 

AND 

SIGNED THE DEGEARATIOX OF IXDEPEXDEXCE 



GOVERNOR 

A TRUE LEADER OF THE PEOPLE 



A STATESMAN 

I X C R R U P T I B L E A X D FEARLESS 



ERECTED A.D. 1880 

FRO 31 A FCXD BEQCEATHED TO THE 

CITY OF BOSTON 

B y 

JONATHAN PHILLIPS 



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